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Eleven Cupar and District swimmers travelled to Dundee on Sunday (8th June) for the Stars of the Future meet. The gala was held at the new Olympia Centre and saw fifteen clubs from across the East of Scotland competing. Swimmers competed in both heats and if fast enough to qualify, in finals too. Overall we had fifteen finalists picking up three Bronze and one Silver medal. 27 lifetime best performances were produced in what were often hotly contested heats.

Cameron McMaster competed in three events picking up PB’s in two. In the freestyle race his hat slipped off as he swam, after having spent 15 seconds perched on the top of his head, otherwise I’m confident he would have PB’d. He made second reserve in the 100m Breaststroke but unfortunately didn’t get a swim. Murdo Denholm competed in four races making the finals of the Backstroke and Butterfly in a weekend where he didn’t perform at his best but showed what a committed swimmer he is by making finals. 11-yr-old Louise Moncrieff enjoyed a superb weekend of racing, setting several huge PB’s and making the final of the 100m Butterfly. Isla Lorimer competed in the 100m Breaststroke and took nearly five-seconds off her entry time and was so close to breaking through the two-minute barrier.

11-yr-old Adam Young, only recently returned to training following a broken collarbone, produced several excellent swims, made the finals in every event he raced in and winning the Bronze medal in the ‘heat declared’ 100m IM. In the 100m Frontcrawl he picked up silver with a new lifetime best swim and in the backstroke final he set a PB and won Bronze. He was just pipped at the post for a medal in the 100m Breaststroke by Cupar swimmer Findlay Baillie but nonetheless set a new PB.

Findlay Baillie also made the finals of all of his events and in a thrilling closely fought race with Adam, he picked up Bronze in the 100m Breaststroke. He managed to swim PB’s in three of his five events proving that as well as being a strong Breaststroker, he also swims well across all the strokes. 11-yr-old Cameron Paterson raced in four events setting excellent PB’s in his 100m Breaststroke and Individual Medley making the biggest improvement of the day by taking 15 seconds off his Breaststroke time . In the 100m Backstroke, 11-yr-old Oliver Goad swam a storming first 25m to almost beat Adam Young to the turn. Oliver went on to set a new lifetime best of 1.32.56 in a controlled swim. Whilst his 100m Freestyle didn’t produce a PB, Oliver’s never say die attitude was there to see as he described his plans to do better next time round.

Ebony Sharp competed in the morning events and despite picking up a shoulder injury the previous day, she turned up to race showing a real can do attitude. Ebony went on to swim well and whilst not setting any new records, she really enjoyed the experience accepting that her injury had put an unfortunate dampener on her weekend. 10-yr-old Charlotte Williamson matched the feat achieved by the two boys by making the finals in all of her events and setting three lifetime best swims too showing real spirit in her races. Eve Hewitt also swam a blinder this weekend producing PB’s in all four of her races and also being a reserve finalist too for three of those events. Eve produced some thrilling races at the Club Sprints on Saturday morning and carried that enthusiasm forward into the DCA meet.

Fife clubs Step Rock and Burntisland were also at the meet and we sat together as a group and swimmers who know one another well from Fife Development and Fife Area Squad cheered one another along which was great to see.

My thanks to Julie Goad and Ruth Hewitt for timekeeping and to Eric Young for Judging during both sessions. Without our technical officials we wouldn’t be able to travel to galas, so their support is vital to the swimmers. A big thank you too for Karen Baillie who once again spent the entire day supporting me poolside and team managing the squad. Our final gala of the season is next weekend at Cumbernauld where our older swimmers race across 50 and 100m in all four strokes.

During the morning heats I was able to use my IPad for filming so that our athletes could see their races which was a great experience for the swimmers and allowed me to review their races with them as well as giving feedback.